It is hard to understand the reasoning behind Mattel’s Green Lantern 4 inch line design. The first thing that comes to mind is that they are cheap and they wanted to maximize their earnings by developing a line that was clearly a throwback to a time when consumers were more naive and toys were just for children.

Up to a point, I can cope with less articulated action figures and I also think that toys should be made sturdy enough to survive the play patterns of modern children, but what really irked me about Mattel’s 2011 Green Lantern line was the price point they started at.

However, time being the great equalizer and all, now that the figures have been discounted to rock bottom prices nearly everywhere, I decided to give them another look, starting with Sinestro (GL04).

Sinestro was one of the greatest members of the Green Lantern Corps, until his downfall. In the 2011 movie we don’t really see him in his villainous phase, although he does act like something of a jerk. Think of him as the Mace Windu of the Green Lantern mythos. Still, he gets a number of cool scenes in the movie and thus got released as part of the first wave of action figures.

One concern I had with this line is that I half expected Mattel would go lazy all the way and just use the same basic humanoid body for all the characters that shared the same basic morphology, so it was rather surprising to learn that Sinestro is a completely unique sculpt.

The level of detail is very high as the whole body is covered in very elaborate patterns. These patterns are not quite like organic tissue, but rather form-fitting armor stylized to look like muscles. The face is decently sculpted and it even has something of a stern expression, although the resemblance to actor Mark Strong is passing at best.

The paint operations on Sinestro are reduced to solid blocks of dark green applied to well-defined areas on his arms, torso and legs. The head only needed black paint for the hair, mustache, eyebrows and pupils, with the white of the eyes painted neatly. The overall look is decent, but as a whole, the paint application doesn’t really do much to enhance the sculpted details underneath.

Like the majority of the figures in this line, Sinestro gets only these six basic points of articulation:

• Swivel neck.

• Pegged hinges at the shoulders.

• Swivel waist.

• Swivel hips.

Rather disappointing, compared to what Mattel used to do with their Infinite Heroes line from a few years ago (or even their Avatar figures), but at dollar-bin prices, there is not much to complain about.

Sinestro comes with a couple of energy construct accessories made of translucent green plastic. One is a fairly large scimitar attachment for his right hand while the other is a smaller sword that he can grab with his left hand (or lend to one other Hal Jordan figure to re-enact their training duel scene).

The larger accessory also works with the energy blast construct that came with the Kilowog figure from this same line, allowing compatibility with larger figures like those from the DCUC or Total Justice lines (See last picture). Also included with Sinestro is a child-sized Green Lantern Ring made of gray rubber and with a translucent green plastic face.

In the end, it is not easy for me to rate Sinestro. At full retail price, I would certainly not recommend this product at all, although there is no denying that this is a well manufactured toy. However, I do think Sinestro is a really nice addition to any collection if you can find him for less than $4.00 USD.

This week, join Ben, John, and Scott for a great new show packed full of toy fun!This week we tackle the second half of our armchair coverage of the 2016 Toy Fair News, and then we run through three great new Toys of the Week;

NECA Aliens Series 3 Dog Alien

Kotobukiya Bishoujo Black Canary

McFarlane Toys Walking Dead Hospital Doors Building Set

If you don’t use iTunes, you can download Episode 209 here now! Click on the link to listen, or right click to save the file! The podcast will always be available from the “Podcast” tab here – but if you can subscribe and give us positive ratings at iTunes, that will help us greatly!

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